Do parents need a ‘time out’ box for technology?

Earlier this year, I made the mistake of telling my six-year-old son that one of my New Year’s resolutions was to pay less attention to my phone and more attention to him.

Now, every time he sees me look down at a device instead of listening attentively to the latest and greatest in Pokemon strategy, he says, “You said you were going to look at me more and your phone less!”

Parents Yuval Lazi and Lidar Gravé-Lazi received a similar shaming from their three-year-old one fateful night at the dinner table. They hadn’t even noticed that they were looking at their phones, answering work email and ignoring their son’s attempts to talk to them.

“Our three-year-old suddenly shouted, ‘Please put your phones away!” which completely took us by surprise,” Yuval recalls. “A light bulb went off and we decided not only to do something about it at home, but after talking with lots of our friends we realized this was a far greater problem than we originally realized. So we set out to ‘do something about it’ to provide a solution for other families looking to shift focus back to what’s really important.”

The “solution” they came up with is Pause, essentially a nice-looking box that blocks cell phone and wifi signals so that parents (and older kids with their own devices) aren’t tempted to look at their texts and emails during family time. “While once dinners were a time for the whole family to catch up and talk about each others’ days, today kids and parents alike are constantly checking their phones and don’t really talk to one another anymore,” says Ori Levin, Pause co-founder and CEO. “We designed Pause as a tool to help families disconnect from their phones and reclaim conversation.”

Levin adds that unlike simply putting a phone in a drawer in another room, having a Pause box present at the table acts as a reminder to keep IRL time in the forefront and helps to create new norms. “The idea is to help families break this phone use habit and create a new routine so that every time they sit down at the dinner table, for example, everyone puts their phones in the box, close the lid and spend some quality family time together. After a few times, it will become an easy part of your daily routine,” he said.

Pause is only in the prototype stage right now, but you can preorder one for $39 on Indiegogo. Levin said that of the eight families who have tried the prototype, almost all had positive feedback. (One family couldn’t handle being out of touch and gave Pause back after one day.) The rest said disconnecting during dinner was difficult at first, but that within a few days it because much easier. Furthermore, they reported feeling closer as a family and became much more aware of other times they looked at their phones instead of connecting with their kids.

Levin points out that family time isn’t the only time Pause could come in handy, adding that there could be applications at spas, restaurants and offices. “One complaint we’ve heard repeatedly from managers is that employees and co-workers aren’t paying attention during meetings because they are distracted by their phones,” he says. “Placing Pause in the office would eliminate the distractions and potentially increase productivity.”

It would be nice to think that we don’t need a $40 box to be able to disconnect from our devices and pay attention to our loved ones and coworkers for even brief periods of time. Levin says, if you can, more power to you. “If families can turn your phones off or put them in another room then we encourage families to do so,” he says. “However, the simple truth is that most people never do.”

Just ask my six-year-old.

Emily Landes has a six-year-old, a toddler and a pretty severe sleep deficit.